JACKSON (WNE) — The number of visitors coursing through Yellowstone National Park dropped this June, compared with the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, more people visited the park than before the pandemic.

But the latter trend has not borne out in Jackson, according to the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce.

In the wake of a Wyoming Office of Tourism report showing that fewer people had visited Wyoming in 2022 but had spent more money, tourism officials said they were expecting a slower year in Jackson.

In mid-May, bookings for the summer were down. At the time, Crista Valentino, executive director of the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board, said the trend was “concerning,” especially for small businesses.

“Everyone is planning on having a lower year this year,” she said.

In June those predictions came true.

Jackson hotels were less occupied than during the pandemic — and the year before.

In June 2019, roughly 1.4 million people visited Yellowstone. In 2021, about 1.6 million people made the journey. Visitation in 2022 was lower because of historic flooding that closed the park for a week and a half.

This past June, about 1.5 million people drove through Yellowstone, about 100,000 more visitors than before the pandemic but about 100,000 less than at the height of pandemic visitation in 2021.

Every month, the Chamber of Commerce surveys businesses in town to figure out how many people stayed in hotels and how many people are likely to stay in the next two or so months.

In June, the monthly survey found that Jackson’s hotels were 75% full, less than 2018 and 2019, the last two years before COVID-19 sent a deluge of tourism sweeping through Jackson and other mountain towns.